h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Okay, here we go with...

A311400 The Burrey Man - shortest entry I've ever read, but it stopped before I got bored. Not bad.

A6583566 Mission impossible the TV Series - Like this one, interesting, entertaining and well written.

A6821318 Mobile phones and air craft - Went on a little long, but interesting nonetheless

A1138583 Scott Levy - Pro-wrestling Veteran: Part Three- Surprusingly good since I hadn't read the first two parts.

A857793 Probability and Statistical Reversal Paradoxes A much more interesting entry than I could have imagined in my worst nightmares.

Well that makes a surprising 5/5. Good work everyone.

A666533 Advanced Electronic Countermeasures
Whoa! I skimmed it, looking for something to capture my interest... this one's way over my head...

A1325251 Boolean Truth Tables
Not my day, today. I will try those two again when I am more lucid and coffee-laden.

A663464 Flashback: The Quest For Identity - the Computer Game
Well written. Not my thing.


A649875 Triangular Numbers
Make that three to re-read *sob*

A283295 Cuban Marinade - 'Mojo'
Very short. Thankfully simple. I understood every sentence.

"A much more interesting entry than I could have imagined in my worst nightmares."



SoRB

It takes a special sort of talent to make statistics interesting.

OK, let's see.

A1101420 - Michael Moore. Not bad. Bit of an introduction, not too long winded. Plenty of discussion at the bottom although I didn't stop to read it - it's always nice to see entries actually being read and commented on.

A245620 - Molesworth books. Not familiar with them. I read it because it was brief, but I doubt I would have read it if it went on for screens and screens. Let's say a 0.5 .

A247042 - Androids. Gave it the once over, not too deeply. A light little read.

A8239999 - Buskers and busking. I didn't read this, purely because I remember it from PR.

A210529 - Working from Home. Glanced through it. OK for what it is. What occured to me is that it might have been interesting to have something about what ways increased numbers of people working from home effects society. For example, think how the concentration of workers into factories affected life after the industrial revolution. How would the atomisation of home working affect things?

Having another blast at this while I wait for the delivery chaps.

A10451206 - Christmas in Lebanon: The Nativity Crib. Quite good, I read this one before.

A593453 - How to enjoy a mango. Basically eating instructions. I felt this one was lacking something.

A1045711 - a marinade recipe. Short and simple, but not really my thing. I'm not a big marinader.

A737679 - About a down and out from a village I've never heard of. I think there's definitely a place for very local things like this. It's the sort of thing that gives a bit of colour to a guide of a place.

A6083732 - Naked Mole rats. I'd forgotten all about these creatures!

I was just clicking around, and here's what I came across...

A378155 American Cuisine -- brief and somewhat vague. Also comes to a number of conclusions about American family life and the food eaten by same that I somewhat disagree with, having eaten American cuisine all my life! Although, to be honest, my favorite foods are Asian.

A2116487 Bull/Cheat the Card Game -- I've never heard of the game myself, but sounds like a fun game. I'm going to ask around and see if anyone I know plays it, or wants to. Would be a blast to play with a bunch of competitive types.

A577037 Themed Lego - Star Wars -- This was interesting, in that I had no *idea* how many different sets Lego made! I just remember a couple of the early ones from the first movie, which I bought for my friend's kids...they would probably collector's items now, if they hadn't been lost in bits and pieces in the garden, and the front porch, and under the bed...

A378010 Doughnuts and Other Isle of Wight Delicacies -- What an interesting article. Liked the history of the food items mentioned. I have to say the doughnuts were the only really tempting items, though. The other choices gave me an admiration for the hardiness of Wightians...

A174241 Metabolic Diseases -- An older article by Peta, brief but informative. Hadn't realized that some of the various congenital diseases were the result of just a tiny change in enzymes or chemical imbalances. Wished it was a longer...

Most of these were earlier than 2003, by the way.

SC

I went to a big store yesterday and they have a huge Lego department there. I saw lots of themed Lego (I had no idea either), including the Star Wars one: thus, there was a life-size Yoda, Darth Vader (with a pretty annoying sound effect). Downstairs in the shop window there was a full Lego nativity scene

My five:

A2458262: Insubordinate Reading. Pretty good entry, but I didn't read it through because, as a student myself, I've learned how it's done from experience.

A3768393: The 1980s - Films and Television. Not really an area of interest of mine. Just gave it a quick scan.

A364646: Teenage Issues. Excellent community entry. Once again I've kind of had experience of this, so I didn't really learn anything from it. But a well-written and informative entry all the same.

A214589: Electronic Fuel Injection, Air/Fuel Mixtures and Catalytic Convertors. A bit of a dry subject and one I know nothing about. Short and sweet, and does a decent job of explaining it all.

A3502595: 'Hang on Sloopy' - The State Rock Song of Ohio. Not particularly interested in this, but short enough for me to read through.

I got:

1) Public Transport:The merits of public transport, both home and abroad. A funny enrty on what is essentially quite a dry subject.

2) MC Escher - Lithographer: The guy who does all those wierd, trick of the eye pictures. It's a good overview of Eschers work, would have been better had it not referenced the David Bowie film 'Labyrinth' which I think is crap.

3) Latin Pronunciation - a beginners guide: I have no need to speak Latin, I find that's the joy of dead languages.

4) Camden Market, London, UK: A nice review of all the fun that can be found at Camden Market.

5) Turkey Squawkers: I have no idea what theses things are as I'm not American child at elementary school, and nor do I have one to hand. Nice entry though, with details of how to make a turkey squawker. I might make one just to find out what the hell they are!

1) A476615 Conlig, County Down, Northern Ireland : Very short. Dating from 2000, this one wouldn't stand a chance of getting through PR nowadays. Could do with an update. (0)

2) A14608523 King Tupou IV of Tonga : This one was great! What a guy! I want to grow up to his successor! Where do I apply? (1)

3) A284384 Airth, Stirlingshire, UK : So so. Geographical entries don't usually do it for me. The bit telling us how close it is to the nearest McDonalds sort of explains everything we need to know really... (.25)

3) A12512017 Wonder Woman - Comic Book Heroine : Not my type of entry as I'm not a fan, and have very little interest in the enemies and friends of comic book characters, but nevertheless very comprehensive and well written. (.75)

4) A700868 Dealing with a Tomato Ketchup Shortage - Quite good. Y'know, one thing hit me about this entry. I *know* where to go to find tomato ketchup in a shop. I *don't know* necessarily where to go to find tomato puree and tomato paste, and it's exceedingly unlikely that I would have them in my cupboard. So, for me, this entry is quite redundant. Now, if the author was telling us how to make tomato ketchup out of old bananas and bits of bread, then it would have been excellent! *sigh* alas. (.5)

So, the result for me is (2.5 / 5)

All you need is a blender, a banana, some bread crumbs and some red food colouring or, if you have none, oxidised human blood.

What??

Uni's finished for Christmas and I'm bored so I thought I'd have a go;

A576911 - Preparing for Your First Day at University

I liked this, a good, interesting group entry - I could have done with this earlier

A430138 - The Stony Brook School, New York, USA

A bit of a niche entry, but it was short so I read it

A2150326 - The Åland Islands, Finland

My favourite of the bunch - a well-written entry about an obscure bit of geography and history, which is always good

A260849 - Telling Frogs from Toads

Very short, not very detailed, only skimmed over it

A308954 - Milton Hershey School

Another US school entry, well-written and quite interesting. Nice story to it

So not a bad haul, I'll give it 4/5

Thought I'd resurrect this one, seeing as how it's Sunday and I'm bored...and I found a rather excellent entry on a cartoon I'd vaguely forgotten

First up Cow and Chicken - excellent toon, the entry's noy too shabby neither

then A1002853 - Bodhrans - another little gem

A262388 - Fun Things To Do With Macaroni - fairly short, quite entertaining


A375491 - Kevin Rowland's 'My Beauty' - I'd never heard of this, so read on...

A897609 - Pulsed Laser Systems - not my bag, skimmed though

Not a bad haul today (and a trip to 6 year-old-memories to boot)

4.5/5

Yup - I'm up for a round.

A651485 - The Sani Pass. **shrug** So What?

A329942 - Handy Mandarin Chinese. Not sure I really understood this. Not good.

A516025 - Drums. It's got Animal, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and a couple of good jokes: what's not to like?

A3724814 - Appley Bridge. At first glance I thought this was about Appleby in Lincolnshire and not Appley in Lancashire (understandably). But I've nothing against pithy little entries about people's home towns.

A583328 - The Nields. A little pat and commercial for my tastes.

Only 2/5. Disappointing.

B

I got

A638967 The Beautiful South - bit too long for me, but nicely readable.

A660250 A PAcifist's Views on Violence - More of an explanation of the many forms of violence - the title got me reading though.

A701001 Overcoming Writer's Block - As someone who writes, I should have found this interesting. I didn't. It's a poor collabarative, I'd suggest the problem lies in the edit.

A2503261 Didcot, Oxfordshire - (I'm sure this one's come up in the thread before.) Not enough history in this for me, like the bits about Brunel.

A803477 Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - This was on a subject that interests me and is also a bit contraversial.

So I read all 5 - but I'd only score 3 out of 5.

Today, I was too busy to read five random entries, so up till now, I've only managed:

A317107 Soap Bubbles - sweet and short, telling me something about the shape of soap bubbles

A1113436 El in the Ugaritic Texts - I had never before heard of El, or Ugarit, or most of the other names mentioned in the text. Really interesting and not too long.

Right, I'm playing again.

A12220084 - The University Of Birmingham. Ah. My alma mater. I read this pretty thoroughly in PR, but it still brings back old memories. I note that some of Z's idiosyncratic spelling remains, though. Off to EF I go!

A489684 - Dyslexia. Sadly I couldn't find any spelling mistakes in this one. Enjoyed reading it, though.

A3347093 - The War of the Crows. I found the ecology aspect more interesting than the biology bits: a surprisingly good read.

A304228 - Insanity and the Law. Anything about, or related to, law makes me drift into a somnolent state almost immediately. Not my barra.

A652277 - This is just artful bullsh1t. Not as good or as clever as it's pretending to be.

A good start, but the last two weren't enjoyable. 3/5

B

I'll play.

A2350036 - Knaresborough Castle. Not bad, but mainly of interest if you care about castles. The more general history in the second section is more fun.

A201718 - Snickerdoodles. A kind of biscuit, it turns out. Nice simple entry, but uses American terminology with no conversions. They sound rather yummmy. Includes the wonderful phrase "homemade edible biscuit" - do recipes get written for the other sort too?

A473924 - Goth - a Lifestyle Choice. Has captured my interest, but is very long. I'll come back and finish it.

A937767 - The Stages of Belief. Leaving aside my opinions of the theories the entry describes, it's well written and very interesting.

A258617 - Flagging Tape. Short, funny, and the kind of fascinating fact that only gets covered in h2g2.